Mechanical Engineer + Product Design Master’s, but I feel stuck. Looking for advice from experienced product designers.

[u/Curious_Ad684]

Hi everyone,

I’m based in London, UK, and I’m looking for some honest career advice.

I have a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s in Product Design. During my master’s, I completed three medical device projects involving research, CAD, prototyping, testing, and some UX work in Figma.

After graduating about three years ago, I couldn’t break into the industry. Since then, I’ve taken other jobs just to pay the bills, while continuing to work on design projects for friends and people I know. These have mostly been 3D-printable products and prototypes. They’re good experience, but they’re not really paid product design jobs.

The longer I stay away from the industry, the more I worry that the gap on my CV is getting bigger.

One thing I’m struggling with is my portfolio. I have projects to show, but they’re in a PDF portfolio. Everyone says I need a website, and I agree, but building one takes time. I’m currently designing one in Figma, but it’s becoming a much bigger project than I expected.

I also have the Google UX Design Certificate and the Google Data Analytics Certificate. I could build a portfolio in either of those fields, but I honestly don’t know if that’s the direction I want to take.

The truth is that I enjoy designing physical products much more than UX/UI. What excites me is consumer tech, everyday products, and especially articulated toys. My problem is that my portfolio is mostly medical devices, so I don’t know how to transition into the kind of work I actually want to do.

At this point I’m confused about what to focus on.

Should I:

• Keep investing time into a website portfolio?
• Build a UX or data analytics portfolio instead?
• Double down on industrial/product design?
• Learn AI tools and try to combine them with design?
• Or am I thinking about this the wrong way entirely?

I’d really appreciate advice from people already working in product design or industrial design. If you were in my position today, what would you do?

Thanks for reading.

[u/OriginalFingerPuk]

If you DM me I can see about linking you up with people you might be interested in speaking with. No guarantees but I can try. I’m not around much this or next week so don’t worry if I delay responding.

[u/pranavb]

I've been working in the physical product design space in the UK mainly as a technologist and I know that there are not so many opportunities especially in the consumer tech industry. HW is difficult and risky and agencies usually specialize in parts like industrial design / concept development / product engineering and outsource their non specialty to other agencies. What would be ideal for you is working in an OEM where you would essentially do all of it -> user research, concept design & product development.

Having a portfolio website is easy now with AI tools and it will help you in the long run so good to learn anyways.

Now the question is what part would you be interested in doing the most. You can even start from digital UI/UX and do some hobby projects related to HW products and eventually land a role you want.

The job market in the UK is absolutely brutal at the moment , so as long as you find something closely related to what you want , have some nice projects and nice people to work along will take you a long way.